The View from the Stars by Walter M. Miller Jr.

The View from the Stars Reviews

• 
  Manny

  Walter M. Miller is best known for his post-apocalyptic novel A Canticle for Leibowitz. This is a collection of his short stories, some of which are not at all bad.
  
  As one can see from Leibowitz, Miller had an interesting take on religion. The story I liked most was the one where the newly dead guy, apparently arrived in a kind of Purgatory, meets a shadowy figure who tells him that, if he has sufficient moral strength, he can relive his life differently; it's possible to go back in time and reverse the critical decision which led to his becoming an alcoholic, ruining both himself and his family. I didn't manage to work out who the supernatural guide was (it's NOT the obvious choice) and found the ending quite moving. He's skillful at sneaking up on you with an unexpected emotional punch.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Paul Bryant

  I read this astro-donkey's years ago, and I loved nearly every story. I was recently doing a "backwards through time" exercise with science fiction, which is where you read a story from each year going backwards from the present year to see how attitudes and themes have changed, sort of like a core sample in geology. Very interesting - recommended to all sf fans. So I picked one from this book for the year 1952, it's called "Dumb Waiter", and here are my notes :
  
  A deliriously macho and fabulously sexist story in which our hero battles to gain control over the computer which runs an abandoned city. As in Terminator, the computer is still fighting a war although all the ammunition has long since run out. The city is uninhabitable. A vigilante group intends to destroy the computer. But our hero knows that’s defeatism. He wants to get to the computer and fix it. So en route he’s fighting robot policemen, the vigilantes and the traumatised woman he picks up, and of course, he wins! Some great 1952 moments :
  
  Muttering angrily, Mitch stuffed a fifty-round drum of ammunition in his belt, took another between his teeth, and lifted the girl over one shoulder. He turned in time to fire a one-handed burst at another skater [robot].
  
  The moral of this action story is rammed home:
  
  A nontechnologist has no right to take part in a technological civilisation. He’s a bull in a china shop. That’s what happened to our era.
  
  Includes some fine detail, such as this chilling image from the robot-administered city orphanage:
  
  Those cribs! They’re full of little bones. Little bones – all over the floor. Little bones…
  
  There's also "Command Performance" (aka "Anyone Else Like Me?"), one of my favourite all time sf stories, in which a woman is a telepath and believes herself to be the only telepathic person, and is therefore immeasurably lonely. Then eventually she meets another human, similarly gifted, a man, and instead of finding a wonderful companionship she meets only horror - now her mind, her entire life, is perpetually displayed to this other, she can't switch off her powers. What happens next is desolating.
  
  Yes, attitudes of the early 50s are antediluvian and can really set your teeth on edge, but the crackling pace and energetic ideas spinning out of every page make up for everything.
  
  
  
• 
  Rob

  Fantastic set of short stories. Miller is so good.
  
  
  Some of the themes are consistent with those in Canticle for Leibowitz. He has a few areas he likes to repeat. Man has created the ability to destroy itself, good and evil, etc. But he hits them from different angles.
  
  

  There is a difference between tragedy and blind brutal calamity. Tragedy has meaning, and there is dignity in it. Tragedy stands with its shoulders stiff and proud. But there is no meaning, no dignity, no fulfillment, in the death of a child.

  
  
  Some of the stories stuck with me for weeks after. I'd think about when when running, or sitting around. The ideas are deep, and the questions hard.
  
  Anybody Else Like Me? in particular was haunting. I'm still thinking about it, a month later.
  
  The Will and Crucifixus Etiam and Dumb Waiter and Big Joe were uncharacteristically optimistic and excellent to read.
  
  

  He knew now what Mars was -- not a ten-thousand-a-year job, not a garbage can for surplus production. But and eight-century passion of human faith in the destiny of the race of Man.
• 
  Joachim Boaz

  Full review:
  https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
  
  "Almost all SF fans have read Walter M. Miller, Jr.’s masterpiece A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959) but few indulge in his shorter works. By 1957 Miller had virtually quit publishing new SF (A Canticle is comprised of novellas published between 1955-1957). His only later work published later was Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman (1997) completed by Terry Bisson and released posthumously.
  
  The View From the Stars (1965) — containing five short stories, two novelettes, and one novella — is a cross section [...]"
• 
  Dirk Wickenden

  What a tedious book. I know when a book's no good for me, as it takes me ages, putting it aside for days. If it's a good book, I'll whip through it quickly, whether a novel or, like this book, a short story collection. The stories are very lacklustre, not much happens. One could compare some of these stories with Ray Bradbury but Bradbury holds one's attention with very almost poetic writing. Miller here, though, is just turgid.
• 
  Robin Banks

  A mix of short stories, some good, some meh. There is a religious element to several -- something I rather like -- and some sociology. It's not Canticle for Liebowitz.
• 
  Cheryl

  You Triflin' Skunk! 4* Never underestimate the courage of a protective mother. Would be a great Twilight Zone but would have required a mature content warning, very talented actors & creative special effects.
  
  The Will *3 Sentimental time travel (find the cure in the future), would have been a decent TZ.
  
  Anybody Else Like Me? *4 Very well written exploration of the What If? of telepathy... a horrifying way it could be. Not suitable for TZ, in part because it's too smart.
  
  Crucifixus Etiam *4 "What man ever made his own salvation?" Philosophical. Too epic in scope for TZ.
  
  I, Dreamer *3 Compare & contrast to The Ship Who Sang. This more harsh/bleak. Wouldn't be film-able.
  
  Dumb Waiter *2 How to be smarter and braver than Central and its automatons. And have a chance to spank a 'girl' while you're at it.
  
  Blood Bank *2 Sorry, just a mess. Interesting premise/ gimmick, but too much clutter weighing it down. (Why did the guy want to go to Sol III anyway?) Still, there's this: "Life first tries to climb a tree to get to the stars. When it fails, it comes down and invents the high-C drive."
  
  Big Joe and the Nth Generation *3 What happens when the Mars colonists lose their understandings of science and technology? Maybe, eventually, when all there is to believe in is myth and unreliable magic, one young man will start to wonder if there's something more going on than the priests know.
  
  The Big Hunger *2 Sorry, though epic in scope, insufficiently imaginative. Like Asimov's Foundation, it's a remotely far future that resembles the present implausibly closely.
  
  Note that the star ratings are vague and subjective, with assorted ones that are barely a three, almost worth rounding up to four, etc. The other thing is that most of these explore concepts explored similarly elsewhere... not very original or fresh (even given the dates)... but Miller is usually deft, and if you like short stories from this era and can readily find this, give it a go.
• 
  Reya

  "Miller is first and foremost a talented writer. The fact that most of his writing concerns itself with science fiction is only secondary." (back cover)
  
  This collection of short stories is both beautifully written and engrossing as great science fiction. Each story feels very unique in tone, with a wide variety of themes. Two of the stories seem to take place in modern times, whereas a few are hundreds or thousands of years into the future. Another spans perhaps hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, which left me with a feeling of awe - and insignificance! There are computers in charge of cities, tales of humans in the far future rediscovering technology of their ancestors, and generations of men laboring to their deaths for 800 years for the future of the human race. At times it's frightening, while at other times there is slightly dark humor. It has both great writing and thought-provoking ideas about the future that sci-fi nerds like me really dig.
  
  This book was first sold in 1964 for 50 cents, so finding this copy might be difficult. However, Miller is best known for his classic sci-fi novel, A Canticle for Leibowitz, which is still in print.
• 
  Isabel (kittiwake)

  When the restless ones, the wild-eyed spacers were gone, the addicts got religion and the federalists became placid anarchists and the Parliaments voted themselves out of existence. There was peace on the third planet of 27 Lambda Serpentis, and good will among the inhabitants thereof. They made love and studied sociology under a friendly sun, under a pleasant blue sky forever.
  From "The Big Hunger".
  
  Nine science fiction stories by the author of one of my favourite books "A Canticle for Leibowitz", who was just as good at short fiction. I bought this book recently from a used book store, and was irritated to find that five of these stories are also found in "The Darfsteller and other Stories" which I already own, and that I had read nearly all of the stories before. My favourites are "You Triflin' Skunk!"," Big Joe and the Nth Generation" and "The Big Hunger".
• 
  Nawfal

  After reading this collection, it is unsurprising data that the author eventually committed suicide. Most of these stories are heavy, very heavy. A few are quite dark and grim. However, all of them are well-written. I mean, written with artistry and command. Nevertheless, a couple of the stories are too dismal for me. My favorites were "You Triflin' Skunk" and "Dumb Waiter." The story "I, Dreamer" is actually the one I found most disturbing. Anyway: solid, if average, vintage science-fiction reading.
• 
  Charles

  Nine of Miller's Short stories. Not nearly as fine as "A Canticle For Leibowitz," but an interesting and eclectic collection.